The Center Legal News

The Center News is a monthly publication that highlights significant cases affecting manufacturers. The NAM's Manufacturers' Center for Legal Action becomes involved in many of these cases to provide the judicial branch with an important perspective it might not otherwise hear. The NAM provides a voice for all manufacturers working to remain competitive amid the complexities of today's legal system.

Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has issued its final decisions of the term, how did manufacturers fare? There’s reason for hope, and the Manufacturers’ Center for Legal Action (MCLA) played a role in several favorable rulings.

The U.S. legal system is widely acknowledged as the most costly in the world—more than twice as expensive as the legal systems of our major competitors, such as Japan, France, Canada and the United Kingdom. Tort claims and related litigation cost more than $250 billion per year, draining untold resources from the productive economy and resulting in lost jobs and growth opportunities for manufacturers.

It’s reasonable to expect government regulators like the Federal Trade Commission or the Food and Drug Administration to require reasonable warnings about product hazards while also prohibiting false and deceptive advertising.

On April 14, the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) “ambush elections” rule went into effect. Manufacturers are faced yet again with the overwhelming challenge of deciphering a new legal restriction and complying with an ever-increasing number of complicated, and often vague, employment regulations.

Can the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforce U.S. air regulations against motor vehicle plants in Sweden? That’s what most people would call overreaching. While the Clean Air Act does allow such enforcement for engines made abroad that are offered for sale here, the EPA’s statutory authority does not extend to engines destined for other countries.

Manufacturers are facing a growing number of threats with regard to corporate governance and shareholder activism. Each year, hundreds of shareholder proposals deluge public companies because the process for submitting these proposals has few restrictions and costs nothing. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules require that a public company include a shareholder proposal in its proxy statement free of charge if the shareholder owns $2,000 worth of company stock or one percent of the outstanding voting shares, whichever is less, for a period of one year—not a difficult standard to meet.

Happy New Year! 2015 will be an active and important year on the legal front for manufacturers. The Manufacturers’ Center for Legal Action (MCLA) started the year off with a bang by launching a suit challenging the National Labor Relation Board’s new ambush elections rule on statutory and constitutional grounds.

Last week, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) made organizing a union much easier. On December 11, the Board ruled in Purple Communications, Inc. that employees have the right to use work email for organizing activities during nonworking time. The very next day, it issued its final rule on ambush elections, which stipulates that elections can now occur within 15 days from the date an organizing petition is filed. Shortening the period before an election denies employees the time required to gather needed facts and make an informed decision.

On October 16, the NAM and our association allies filed a brief in Perez v. Mortgage Bankers Association, which the Supreme Court will hear in December. The outcome of this case will have a wide-ranging impact on administrative law by significantly expanding or limiting the authority of regulatory agencies.

The Manufacturer's Center for Legal Action will be filing an amicus brief in the Second Circuit, encouraging the court to overrule a federal district court's decision that would enable the U.S. government to obtain private records stored in a cloud server outside the United States. This issue is not just about manufacturing and business, but more importantly, it is about protecting constitutional guarantees against unlawful search and seizure and invasion of privacy.

The Center News is a monthly publication that highlights significant cases affecting manufacturers. The NAM's Manufacturers' Center for Legal Action becomes involved in many of these cases to provide the judicial branch with an important perspective it

The Center News is a monthly publication that highlights significant cases affecting manufacturers. The NAM's Manufacturers' Center for Legal Action becomes involved in many of these cases to provide the judicial branch with an important perspective it

The Center News is a monthly publication that highlights significant cases affecting manufacturers. The NAM's Manufacturers' Center for Legal Action becomes involved in many of these cases to provide the judicial branch with an important perspective it